quicko1

Simplifying taxes for all: Deciphering User Needs and Triggering the Redesign Journey

OVERVIEW

As a Product Designer at Quicko, I've had the opportunity to work on various projects, but I'm particularly excited to share a significant journey - the complete redesign of Quicko's Income Tax filing web application. In this case study, I will provide an in-depth exploration of the design process, unraveling the 'why' and 'how' behind the transformation of Quicko's tax filing experience

ROLE

TIMELINE

TEAM

PROCESS

Product Designer

3 months

Vishvajit Sonagara (Product Manager), a team of four engineers, Myself as Product Designer

UX Research, Information Architecture, Prototyping, User Testing, Product Strategy, Visual Design.

ABOUT THE PRODUCT

Quicko serves as a gateway to their cutting-edge services, which aims to simplify the tax filing process for both individuals and small businesses in India. With a focus on Software as a Service (SaaS), Quicko provides a platform that empowers users to efficiently manage their tax obligations. The company's commitment to enhancing accessibility and usability in the often complex world of taxes makes it a valuable resource for individuals and businesses seeking efficient, user-friendly tax solutions.

WHO IS THE USER

The user category and primary user persona represent a broad spectrum of individuals: every tax-paying citizen of India. The user persona encompasses a diverse range of taxpayers, including individuals with various income sources, salaried employees, self-employed professionals, and small business owners.

The primary user persona, therefore, embodies the average Indian taxpayer, someone who seeks simplicity and clarity in their tax-filing process, and expects a digital platform that streamlines the otherwise complex task of submitting their income tax returns.

INTRODUCTION: TAX STRUCTURE

Filing taxes in India involves a multi-step process that typically includes calculating and consolidating various income sources, adding applicable deductions and tax credits, meticulously reviewing all tax-related documents, and ultimately submitting the completed return to the Income Tax Department. This comprehensive procedure ensures compliance with the country's tax regulations and the accurate declaration of financial information.

Before I delve deep into the case study, it's important to visual these steps to file Income Tax Return(ITR).

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SPACE

The existing product, initially launched had fulfilled its foundational purpose. However, with time and user feedback, it became apparent that the product had accrued what we commonly refer to as "design and engineering debt." This debt comprises various aspects, including user experience challenges, navigation complexities, and the absence of a cohesive design language.

Navigation

The product’s information architecture was ambiguous and a few duplicities in the functionalities, which made it challenging for the users to navigate within the application and the possibility of losing context through the process.

Discoverability

There was no primary button to tax planning application and input fields have very less discoverability which makes it difficult for users to make cognitive decisions.

Lack of Visual Hierarchy

From the testing sessions, it was clear that the user was confused at multiple points to understand the product’s functionality. There were many parts of the application that lacked hierarchy visual wise and information wise, which makes it difficult for the users to understand and complete the form.

Scalability

The product's scope expanded significantly as stakeholders made the strategic decision to venture into tax planning. This expansion necessitated a comprehensive reconstruction of the product to seamlessly integrate both tax filing and planning functionalities.

USER PAINPOINTS

By synthesizing user feedback, analyzing data, and leveraging tools such as Hotjar, Fullstory, and Zendesk for customer insights, we acquired valuable information about the challenges users encountered. These are some of the prominent pain points that led to user drop-offs.

#1

On this screen, the user is within the "House Property" subcategory under "Incomes." However, the interface does not clearly convey the presence of five subcategories within the income section. This lack of clarity makes it challenging for users to navigate seamlessly between different income subcategories, leading to confusion and contributing to user drop-off issues.

Old Product

#2

Mandatory actions that allow the user to complete the task are not highlighted, leading to errors at the end of the filing process. This was one of the major reasons for user drop-offs.

This is the house property summary of the income category, but the lack of visual cues or hierarchy fails to inform users about their current position within the tax filing process, causing confusion.

Displaying non-mandatory action cards with equal prominence as mandatory ones creates a visual inconsistency that detracts from the user experience.

Old Product

#3

The presence of illustrations on this screen introduces visual noise and detracts from the clarity of the primary Call-to-Action. Additionally, the card design used throughout the application does not effectively align with the user's specific intention, which, in this case, is to select the house property type in order to add income details. The design fails to communicate the necessary action to the user.

Old Product

Upon a thorough examination of these challenges, including the assessment of drop-off rates in such scenarios, and in response to the growing product scope that involved the integration of additional features like tax planning, it became evident that a comprehensive redesign and reconstruction of the product was crucial.

REDESIGN GOALS

Make it simple, but significant

As a designer, the most formidable challenge lies in streamlining the plethora of information essential for users to file their taxes. The overarching goal was to make the tax filing process simpler and more accessible for every individual. Before delving into the visual design phase, I established a set of pivotal conditions to shape an efficient user flow, including:

It must be intuitive and transparent which allows the user to always know the next step to take.

The flow must reduce the number of clicks which in turn reduces the task time.

The new product must build trust between the user and the platform.

FINAL SHIPPED DESIGN

New Design

#1

The side navigation now has an expandable menu that allows the user to know which part of incomes they are on, this also gives the overall summary of the income section.
Options on the form are pre-filled and displayed in the first glance, which makes it easier for the user to choose and complete the task.

After

Before

New Design

#2

The mandatory actions are now clearly shown, which helps the users to make quicker decisions to file their taxes.

After

Before

New Design

#3

All of the categories are shown with equal prominence here to assist the user to make an informed and timely selection.

After

Before

LET'S TALK NUMBERS - IMPACT

After the redesign of these data-intensive layouts, the filing rates for this financial year(2021-22) went up 3 times. Below is the data on the number of returns filed through the product without the help of tax experts (users filing on their own).

7,934

No. of returns filed for 2020-21

24,072

No. of returns filed for 2021-22

some tweets that makes my heart go ☺️😇

CHALLENGES & LEARNINGS

Since I have no background in fintech, it was quite challenging to learn all about taxes and how they are filed.

It was interesting to understand the business needs and targets after connecting with the stakeholder.

Gaining a deep understanding of user behavior and closely tracking their patterns provided valuable insights, enabling me to align our objectives effectively.

I understood that it is critical to be a team player in order to maintain active communication with diverse teams in order to obtain and comprehend data.

Adapt, implement design cues after feedback sessions and keep testing to best understand your users.

Here is something that I sketched on my journal during the first week of my job

ACHIEVEMENTS I FOSTERED

Adaptive workflows tailored to address different user type

Synchronized the functionally in alignment with the user needs

Established the design language to ensure uniformity

CHECKOUT MY OTHER PROJECTS

Hardware Innovation Project - UX Design Internship

Designing an MVP mobile experience to glyde through taxes.

Simplifying taxes for all: Deciphering User Needs and Triggering the Redesign Journey

OVERVIEW

ROLE

TIMELINE

TEAM

PROCESS

Product Designer

3 months

Vishvajit Sonagara (Product Manager), a team of four engineers, Myself as Product Designer

UX Research, Information Architecture, Prototyping, User Testing, Product Strategy, Visual Design.

ABOUT THE PRODUCT

WHO IS THE USER

The primary user persona, therefore, embodies the average Indian taxpayer, someone who seeks simplicity and clarity in their tax-filing process, and expects a digital platform that streamlines the otherwise complex task of submitting their income tax returns.

INTRODUCTION: TAX STRUCTURE

Before I delve deep into the case study, it's important to visual these steps to file Income Tax Return(ITR).

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SPACE

Navigation

The product’s information architecture was ambiguous and a few duplicities in the functionalities, which made it challenging for the users to navigate within the application and the possibility of losing context through the process.

Discoverability

There was no primary button to tax planning application and input fields have very less discoverability which makes it difficult for users to make cognitive decisions.

Lack of Visual Hierarchy

Scalability

The product's scope expanded significantly as stakeholders made the strategic decision to venture into tax planning. This expansion necessitated a comprehensive reconstruction of the product to seamlessly integrate both tax filing and planning functionalities.

USER PAINPOINTS

By synthesizing user feedback, analyzing data, and leveraging tools such as Hotjar, Fullstory, and Zendesk for customer insights, we acquired valuable information about the challenges users encountered. These are some of the prominent pain points that led to user drop-offs.

#1

Old Product

#2

Mandatory actions that allow the user to complete the task are not highlighted, leading to errors at the end of the filing process. This was one of the major reasons for user drop-offs.

​This is the house property summary of the income category, but the lack of visual cues or hierarchy fails to inform users about their current position within the tax filing process, causing confusion.

Displaying non-mandatory action cards with equal prominence as mandatory ones creates a visual inconsistency that detracts from the user experience.

Old Product

#3

Old Product

REDESIGN GOALS

Make it simple, but significant

It must be intuitive and transparent which allows the user to always know the next step to take.

The flow must reduce the number of clicks which in turn reduces the task time.

The new product must build trust between the user and the platform.

FINAL SHIPPED DESIGN

New Design

#1

The side navigation now has an expandable menu that allows the user to know which part of incomes they are on, this also gives the overall summary of the income section.

Options on the form are pre-filled and displayed in the first glance, which makes it easier for the user to choose and complete the task.

After

Before

New Design

#2

The mandatory actions are now clearly shown, which helps the users to make quicker decisions to file their taxes.

After

Before

New Design

#3

All of the categories are shown with equal prominence here to assist the user to make an informed and timely selection.

After

Before

LET'S TALK NUMBERS - IMPACT

After the redesign of these data-intensive layouts, the filing rates for this financial year(2021-22) went up 3 times. Below is the data on the number of returns filed through the product without the help of tax experts (users filing on their own).

7,934

No. of returns filed for 2020-21

24,072

No. of returns filed for 2021-22

some tweets that makes my heart go ☺️😇

CHALLENGES & LEARNINGS

Since I have no background in fintech, it was quite challenging to learn all about taxes and how they are filed.

It was interesting to understand the business needs and targets after connecting with the stakeholder.

Gaining a deep understanding of user behavior and closely tracking their patterns provided valuable insights, enabling me to align our objectives effectively.

I understood that it is critical to be a team player in order to maintain active communication with diverse teams in order to obtain and comprehend data.

Adapt, implement design cues after feedback sessions and keep testing to best understand your users.

Here is something that I sketched on my journal during the first week of my job

ACHIEVEMENTS I FOSTERED

Adaptive workflows tailored to address different user type

Synchronized the functionally in alignment with the user needs

Established the design language to ensure uniformity

CHECKOUT MY OTHER PROJECTS

Hardware Innovation Project - UX Design Internship

Designing an MVP mobile experience to glyde through taxes.

This is the house property summary of the income category, but the lack of visual cues or hierarchy fails to inform users about their current position within the tax filing process, causing confusion.